Better Days
by Caroline
Summary: [BB] Brennan's world begins again.
1. Lost

TITLE: Better Days  
PART ONE: Lost

* * *

"How long has he been gone now?"

"A month."

"When is he expected back?"

"No one knows. Profiling is a very extensive, intense process. Sometimes it takes years."

"How's she holding up?"

"Not well."

"She told you that?"

"No. Look at her, though. She barely eats, only talks to anybody when it pertains to work, and she's got dark circles under her eyes because she's kept awake constantly worrying about him."

"When was the last time he called?"

"Couple weeks ago."

"Wow."

"Yeah. For any other guy, that'd be nothing out of the ordinary. But... the way he feels about her... this whole time he hasn't gone more than two days without contacting her. That's why she's stopped sleeping now. It's not like him to just not call."

"Look at her. She's walking around like she's a widow. Totally lost."

Two pairs of eyes, one dark brown and one clear blue turned away from the scientist on the other side of the room and focused on each other. The owner of the dark brown eyes blinked slowly and brushed jet-black locks out of her face. "She doesn't think he's coming back."

The owner of the clear blue eyes shook his head, shaking the tight curls atop it in the process. "I can't believe what this is doing to her."

"Well, they're in love with each other," Angela Montenegro shrugged, watching her best friend from across the room examining a pile of bones with vacant, unseeing eyes.

"Yeah," Jack Hodgins chuffed. "That much was evident when they were clinging to each other in that warehouse a month ago. I mean, he even had broken ribs and yet he had her in a vice grip. The paramedics had to _literally_ pry them off each other."

Angela chuckled in spite of herself. "I would've loved to have seen that. I cannot imagine Brennan clinging to _anybody_."

"Well, she was wrapped around Booth pretty tight. Like a python."

She shook her head at her companion's wording. "Lovely analogy. Highly romantic of you, Hodgins."

"Thanks."

The pair fell into silence as they watched the lovely-yet-worn-down anthropologist make her way over to them. "I think I'm ready now," she sighed, devoid of any enthusiasm. "Remind me why I have to go to this thing again?"

"Because Goodman said so."

"Oh, right." Temperance Brennan looked up at her resident entomology expert, enquiring, "So, then why are _you_ going? It's not like you to listen to anything Goodman tells you to do."

Hodgins shrugged. "I guess my reasoning is two-fold. One, I don't have to rub elbows with a bunch of the higher ups. And two is obvious: free booze."

Brennan shook her head and unbuttoned her lab coat, draping it over the back of her chair while she leaned over her desk, maneuvering her wireless mouse to turn her computer off. Once completed, she looked back up at her associates, again with those vacant eyes. "Let's go. At least we don't have to dress up."

* * *

Upstairs, employees of the Jeffersonian Institute were already mingling, Dr. Daniel Goodman and Zack Addy included. When the other trio of 'squints' arrived, Zack greeted them promptly. "Where have you been?"

Hodgins and Angela glanced in unison toward Brennan, who was already making her way to the bar. "Dr. Brennan still had to finish up her analysis of that australopithecine man."

Zack's eyes widened. "She was still doing that?"

Angela immediately tilted her head at the young man. "Cut her a break, Zack. You know she hasn't been herself lately."

"Yeah, I know. Why is that? Is it just because Booth's off profiling and she hasn't seen him in, like, a month?"

Hodgins and Angela shared a look, and a smile. Zack was almost childlike in his naivete concerning most things, especially interpersonal relations. "Yeah, Zack," Hodgins chuckled. "I think you hit the nail right on the head."

Zack frowned. "I don't understand."

"What are you talking about?" Brennan's voice broke into the conversation as she returned with a glass of Merlot.

Angela briefly struggled for speech, until Hodgins cut in. "Just another one of Zack's many misunderstandings where pop culture is concerned."

"Oh."

Angela watched her friend slowly consume her wine, eyes far-off and slightly glazed over. "Sweetie, you okay?"

"Yeah," came the expected answer between drinks.

"Maybe you should go dance," Hodgins suggested, nodding his head toward where the makeshift dance floor and DJ stand was set up. "I mean, it's a party after all."

Brennan merely shook her head and raised her wine glass to her lips again, muttering, "I'm not in a very festive mood."

The song that had been playing faded into the background as a new one began, which Angela recognized as a Goo Goo Dolls song from the piano intro. She grabbed Hodgins' arm. "You're going to come dance with me."

Hodgins immediately shook his head. "No. No way. You know how I feel about dancing."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that it's a way for the music industry to control the masses and turn everyone into mindless drones that sway to whatever beat is played for them. So come be a drone with me. You're not getting out of it." While she dragged him toward the dance floor behind her, she called over her shoulder, "I'll buy you a drink for your trouble!"

"The drinks are free."

Angela spun into her conspiracy-loving friend's arms and threw him a smirk. "So they are. Oh look, we're dancing." Her left hand went around his shoulders while her right forced its way into his left, manipulating him into the standard dancing pose.

He narrowed his eyes at her contemplatively. "You dragged me out here just so we could talk about Booth and Brennan again, didn't you?"

She leaned back from him slightly. "You're extremely intuitive for a guy."

He shrugged. "I'm told it's one of my gifts..." he then leered as he added slyly, "among other things."

Angela rolled her eyes disgustedly. "Ugh, I should've known what I was getting myself into."

"Yes you should have. So it serves you right."

She glanced over his shoulder and sighed. "Look at her."

Hodgins maneuvered them so both could watch Brennan. She stood alone near the bar, consuming what both could only assume was her second glass of Merlot, just staring blankly into the distance. Angela tsked and shook her head. "Makes me so sad to watch her."

"Well, maybe this little separation period will bring her to her senses."

"Oh my God..."

"What?" His head swiveled to look at Angela, his brows furrowed in confusion.

She nodded toward the doorway, and at the figure that had just appeared there as a rather poignant line from the song floated through the speakers...

_'Cause tonight's the night the world begins again_

They then watched as, seemingly in slow motion, Brennan looked up from her Merlot and locked eyes with a haggard-looking Seeley Booth. Her eyes widened, then lit up for the first time in a month as the wine glass slipped from her hand and spilled on the bar. The exclamation from the bartender went unheard as the partners just stood staring at each other from several yards away, until Booth took a step forward. Brennan took one in response, and soon they were moving quickly to one another as the music flooding from the speakers swelled.

The duffel bag that had been slung over the Booth's shoulder hit the floor as he strode toward Brennan, a wide smile brightening his otherwise-grim countenance. They were just feet from each other now, and Hodgins turned to his dancing partner with a smile. "I think you're about to get a first-hand account of what I witnessed at the warehouse."

Angela chuckled. "I may pass out then, because I've already got butterflies just watching _this_."

They swayed half-heartedly and listened to the chorus of the song while they watched the pair stride quickly to one another. Angela barked a surprised laugh when she saw Brennan practically throw herself into her partner's arms, and Hodgins raised his eyebrows when he saw Booth turn his face into Brennan's hair with eyes closed.

Hodgins, with a grin, spoke aloud his interpretation of the look on Booth's face. "He's home."

_And tonight's the night the world begins again_

* * *

_CONTINUED IN PART TWO_ _

* * *

_

_AUTHOR'S NOTES: In case anyone is a huge Geek like I am (that's right -- with a capital G!) and likes to listen to the song with the fic, this was, in fact, "Better Days" by the Goo Goo Dolls, and Booth appears in the doorway at about 2:10 into the song. Also, everything that is left unanswered in this part will be answered in the next one. Thanks for reading this fic, as it was just another random idea springing from a song. Hope it was enjoyable._


	2. Found

TITLE: Better Days  
PART TWO: Found

* * *

For a month she had worried about him. For a month she had missed him. For a month she had counted all the times that she should have realized what was between them, should have told him how she felt. For a month she replayed their last few interactions, relived the feeling of being in his arms in the warehouse and sitting beside him watching a romantic movie in the hospital. For a month she ran on fumes, disbelieving what was actually happening to her. She'd never been dependent on anyone. Her entire life she had been self-sufficient, even before her parents had disappeared. She never needed anyone.

And then Seeley Booth had come along. He'd taken her world, her self-sufficient, independent world and blown it wide open, starbursted it out. And she learned the meaning of the word 'need.' She'd never needed anyone like she needed Booth. And it took her the duration of the past month to realize the fact that, not only did she need him in her life, but she needed him in it as a primary fixture.

The past month without him had been hell... and she didn't even believe in hell. But that's what being without him was. She recalled the conversation they'd had a month ago, before he left for Oregon.

* * *

_"Bones, I'm sorry to just show up so late, but... I wanted to tell you in person."He stoodon her doorstep with his hands in his pockets and the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up._

_"What?" She stepped aside to allow him entry to her home._

_She watched him glance toward her kitchen briefly, probably reliving the explosion. When he flinched, she touched his arm and brought him back to earth. _

_"Booth."_

_"Sorry. Maybe we should sit down."_

_So they did, and he told her what he had come to tell her. That they were having him give profiling a try. "Cullen just wants me to do it once and see if I like it. If I do, then they'll probably talk about transferring me. They need profilers, I guess."_

_"So what does that mean?"_

_"It means I'm gonna be going away for awhile, profiling. It's an intense thing, apparently. You have to try to really get into the mind of a criminal in order to catch them."_

_"How long will you be gone?"_

_He shrugged and held out his upturned palm, reaching for her. She allowed him to hold her hand, slipping her own inside his and feeling her stomach somersault as he squeezed her hand. "Could be a week... could be several. At the most, maybe a year."_

_"A year!" She dropped his hand._

_He reached for her again, this time grabbing both hands. "Bones, listen, I don't want to do this. But they really need people..."_

_He trailed off, or at least she thought he did. She was lost in her thoughts at that point. He'd be gone, away from her, for possibly a year. She closed her eyes and she felt his arms around her, in the warehouse... supporting her, protecting her. And then she realized she actually **was** in his arms. He was holding her, murmuring things into her hair... things he'd never say under any other circumstance._

_"You have no idea how much I'll miss you. Especially now, after what we've just been through. I don't want to do this, but I have to. You understand."_

_"Yes." She understood completely; she just didn't like it. And she would miss him too -- terribly -- but she couldn't bring herself to tell him this. "Be safe."_

* * *

She didn't want to be at this party, on the uppermost level of the Jeffersonian. It was an annual party for all the employees, and she was not feeling very festive this time. She was in love with her partner and he had left. He had promised he'd keep in touch with her while he was profiling and he hadn't. She'd had maybe twelve hours sleep total in the past two weeks and she was running on empty.

She accepted with a vacant smile her second glass of Merlot from the bartender, staring off into space again and replaying the final conversation she'd had with Booth.

* * *

_"Bones? I'm sorry to call so late..." _

"No, no." She sat up and clicked her bedside lamp on, her heart thudding erratically at the sound of his voice. The voice she'd missed for days, since the last phone call. "I wasn't sleeping." And that was the truth. She'd been lying in bed for two hours with the lights off, but her mind would not shut down. And the most prominent thought in her head? Him. "I'm glad you called," she added, toying with the strap on her nightie. "How's the profile going?"

_"Uh, it's... it's going. I wish I could discuss it, but I'm not really allowed to. Suffice it to say, it's intense. I just needed to hear your voice to bring me back to earth again."_

_"Oh."_

_A pause ensued before Booth chuckled. "I was kinda hoping I'd hear a lot more of your voice than this though, Bones."_

_She grinned and placed a hand over her eyes briefly, exhaling her own chuckle. "I'm sorry. I guess I just... don't know what to say."_

_"It's alright. And I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."_

_"You didn't. It's just--"_

_"This is kinda weird, isn't it? I mean, we're friends and yet..."_

_Booth left the statement hanging and Brennan's heart skipped as she silently completed it for him: 'and yet we're behaving like a married couple.' "Right."_

_"Will it make you uncomfortable if I say that I miss you, Bones?"_

_She smiled. "No, it won't."_

_Another pause. Then Booth chuckled again. "Any chance you might miss me too?"_

_She smiled. "Maybe. A slight chance." _

"I'm hoping this will all be over in another week. I'll call you, alright?"

_Brennan nodded though she knew Booth couldn't see this and replied softly, "Yeah. Just... hurry and come home safe, okay?"_

_She felt his answering smile through the phone lines. "You really do miss me, Bones. That's so cute."_

_She rolled her eyes -- the moment was ruined. "Goodnight, Booth."_

_"G'night, Temperance."_

* * *

That had been the last time she'd heard from him. He had promised to call her in a week, but that call had never come. And she knew she hadn't missed it. If he had called her home, there would have been a message waiting for her. And her cell phone was glued to her side every single day -- not to mention she fell asleep with it clutched in her hand every night waiting for him to call -- and still nothing.

He could be dead. She closed her eyes at the thought. What if, somehow, he'd put himself in danger while profiling and gotten himself killed? What if he'd been killed by the very man he was trying to profile? What if he was seriously injured, laid up in an Oregon hospital in the ICU? What if he was in a coma in some hospital, hanging by a thread?

She sipped at her wine and let the endless possibilities tumble through her head while absently listening to the song that was playing. After several moments, her heart suddenly felt a pull; some sort of odd, almost-magnetic force was drawing her eyes up and toward the door. And that's when she saw him.

_'Cause tonight's the night the world begins again_

His hair stood up in tufts, dark circles were under his eyes, it appeared he hadn't shaven for at least three or four days, and yet he was still the most lovely thing she'd seen in a long time. Brennan's heart skipped when they locked eyes and she felt her wine glass slip from her fingers. She absently registered the voice of the bartender yelling something at her, but she paid no attention. Booth took one step toward her, and she mirrored the action. Soon, they were striding quickly to one another.

His duffel bag, what had probably been his carry-on, banged him repeatedly in the hip as he walked until he shrugged it off his right shoulder and let it drop to the floor, still taking quick, long steps toward her. His wide grin caused a face-splitting smile of her own as she continued to rush toward him, not caring if one person or ten-thousand were watching them. Booth was alive and healthy, right in front of her. She couldn't help but fling herself into his arms, burying her face in his chest and feeling him turn his head into her hair.

_And tonight's the night world begins again_

"Booth," she whispered into his shirt, tears welling in her eyes without her conscious consent. She chuckled at herself through her tears, trying to inwardly rationalize her emotional state. "I never thought I'd see you again."

He exhaled his chuckle into her hair and kissed her temple. "Never thought I'd get home to you, either."

She closed her eyes as her heart began to skip wildly. _Home_. That's what she was feeling in his arms... right now, at her home, and in the warehouse. She'd never been able to place that feeling before, but he had just summed it up for her. It felt like home.

"You didn't call."

"I know. I'm so sorry. Things were getting too intense for me to break focus."

She felt his arms tighten around her and she slid her hands around his waist, then up his back to clasp his shoulders, nails digging in slightly as if he'd vanish into thin air when she let go. Kisses rained down on the top of her head, her temples, her forehead... then he leaned his forehead on hers.

"I missed you so damn much, Bones," he murmured, his voice a honeyed baritone that sent shivers sliding down her spine. "So damn much."

Brennan swallowed the lump that had been building in her throat and could finally admit, "I missed you, too."

While their foreheads remained in contact, their hands began a systematic pattern of tactile memorization... re-establishing the connection that had been severed for a month. Booth's hands drifted up to Brennan's face, cupping it gently, his thumbs stroking her cheeks. Brennan slid her hands down his back, around his waist and up his chest to his arms, sliding them down his arms then and to his wrists while her own thumbs stroked the backs of his hands.

Booth dropped a kiss to the corner of each eye while his hands left her face and traveled slowly back down her arms. Brennan let her hands drop from his before they found his waist again, slipping around to the small of his back.

The rational part of her -- the Dr. Brennan part of her -- was vaguely aware that they were still in a public place, and in view of her boss. However, the other part of her -- the Temperance part of her -- could not have cared less. Her partner, the man she'd been in love with for several months, was back. He was in her arms, he was nuzzling her ear and her cheek and murmuring wonderfully sweet things while peppering errant kisses to her hair and face. That Temperance part of her would let the _president_ watch them interact like this for all she cared.

"We have some stuff we should talk about," he whispered, and her eyes slid closed in response.

"Yeah?"

"It kind of pertains to what we're doing now, and why we're doing it."

She smiled, in spite of herself, when their foreheads connected again. "And judging by what's happening right now, Booth, I could accurately hypothesize how that conversation will turn out."

"Ah." His hands slid up her neck to her jawline, cupping her face again as he tilted his head. "Since you've got it all figured out then, how about I just skip to the tail-end of the conversation and kiss you?"

Brennan tilted her head in the opposite direction, still keeping her forehead against his while her eyes closed in anticipation. "Well, that _would_ save some time, wouldn't it?"

"Mm-hmm." He leaned in...

Their lips parted and just feather-lightly touched when a throat clearing startled them apart. They turned, with Booth still cupping Brennan's face, to see Hodgins and Angela beside them. The pair had their arms around each other as if they had been slow dancing, though a fast song was now flowing from the speakers.

Angela smiled at them. "Goodman's still here, so maybe it would be best if you guys, um..." She looked to her partner for help.

Hodgins, taking the cue, raised an eyebrow and finished, "get a room?"

Booth rolled his eyes briefly, then leaned in to kiss Brennan's cheek. "I should go put my bag in your office for safe-keeping," he murmured, and reached into her pocket, fishing out the keys without a fuss from his partner.

Brennan watched him go before turning back to Angela and Hodgins.

They grinned knowingly, widely at her, then Hodgins looked over his shoulder at the dance floor as a new song began. "I can't believe it. They're actually playing a song I enjoy."

"Is this 'Champagne Supernova'?" Angela enquired as her partner began to pull her once more toward the dance floor. "That Oasis song?"

"Yeah," Hodgins nodded over his shoulder, "except it's not them. It's a cover, but it's still good. Come on."

Brennan smiled when she heard Angela gripe, "So when it's a song _you_ like, it's okay to be a mindless drone, but not when it's one _I_ like?"

Her smile grew wider when she watched Hodgins reach back for Angela, wind his arm around her waist, and pull her more forcefully with him. "You wanna dance or not?"

She felt that magnetic pull again, drawing her eyes back to the doorway, and she turned to see Booth watching her. She smiled and made her way over to him. "Something you wanted?"

He nodded slowly while a sly grin twitched at one corner of his lips. "Yeah, to dance with you. But first, there's something that I _need_."

Before she could ask what that was, Booth grabbed a handful of her shirt material over her abdomen and tugged her into the hallway with him. He spun them around so he was leaning against the wall, then he slipped his hand beneath her hair and pulled her into him. She went with his pull and her lips smiled against his before they crashed together.

Booth drew her tight against him with an arm around her waist and Brennan threaded her own around his neck, both holding on for dear life as their lips parted and came together again and again.

When the need for oxygen became too great, they pulled apart and their foreheads found each other once morewhile their grip on each other loosened. Booth exhaled softly, his breath puffing against her lips, as he slid his hands up and down her back. Brennan kept her arms looped around his shoulders as they began to sway to the song's chorus, the stringed-instrument background music filtering out into the hall.

They were silent, save for the song, for a minute or two. When Booth leaned in to brush his lips to Brennan's again, she smiled. "Will we actually have that conversation, Booth?"

"I suppose we should, eventually."

"Not tonight."

"No, not tonight. Tonight I'm home, I survived my first and _only_ profiling experience, and I've got a beautiful woman in my arms. This day is better than any I've seen in over a month. There's nothing to talk about."

Brennan sighed. "You're home, Booth."

He tilted his head for another kiss and grinned against her lips. "Yeah, Bones. I'm home."

* * *

FINIS

* * *

_**AUTHOR'S NOTES:** Well, this didn't turn out **exactly** how I wanted it to... I really should have left it as a oneshot. Silly me, thinking I still had more of the story to tell. Oh, well. Hopefully it wasn't too dissatisfying. And the song mentioned above is the matt pond P.A. version of "Champagne Supernova," one of my very favorite songs ever._


End file.
